11 African Start-ups have been selected to participate in the X-Africa Forum organized by École Polytechnique, France’s top science and engineering school, also known as L’X.
The X-Africa Forum is dedicated to African entrepreneurship and aims to increase the visibility of the participating startups and to attract more investors as well as to raise awareness about the untapped potential of the continent for economic growth.
Every year, about a hundred start-ups from the African continent submitted their applications to participate in the Forum. Among them, 15 start-ups on average are selected each year. This year, 11 high-potential ones have been invited. Please find the list below:
- Neofarmertech (Senegal)
- MUSA CS (Togo)
- KALTANI (Nigeria)
- NUMERIC ART (Benin)
- Bongalo (Rwanda)
- OPTIMIZE AFRIKA SARL (Ivory Coast)
- Baobab+ (France, Senegal, Mali, Ivory Coast, Madagascar)
- African Food (Côte d’Ivoire)
- Relika (Togo)
- Bedoo (Ivory Coast)
- Afriwomen Connect Consultancy (Kenya)
More than 2,000 people are expected to attend (students, alumni, young entrepreneurs, industrial decision-makers, journalists, etc). On the program for this 2020 edition:
- Workshops on Artificial Intelligence, Banking in Africa: challenges and opportunities, innovation in energies;
- two round tables (African digital transition & which investment model for Africa?);
- a conference on Energy in Africa: An Integrated Vision and an Opportunity;
- a pitching contest for the 11 selected start-ups.
Largely internationalized (40% of its students, 39% of its teaching staff), École polytechnique combines research, teaching and innovation at the highest scientific and technological levels. The school promotes a culture of excellence with a strong emphasis on science, open to a great humanist tradition.
Indeed, its ambition is to welcome more African students, and large-scale efforts have been made in target countries to support the emergence or consolidation of local preparatory classes and vocational training courses, particularly in Côte d’Ivoire, Morocco, Senegal and Guinea.